​LAKEVIEW, Ore.—Oct. 31, 2016—Your free ride to creativity runs for two more months! Playa and Lake County Library District are offering Lakeview residents a free ride on the bus to Playa Presents on Saturdays November 12 and December 10 for studio tours, readings, and refreshments.

The next Playa Presents will be held from 2:00 to 4:00 pm on Saturday, November 12, 2016. The public is welcome to attend this free event at Playa’s facility on Summer Lake located at 47531 Hwy 31, between mileposts 81 and 82.

Thea Gregorius, Jenny Root, Ken Rumble, and Meg Stein. You can find out more about residents as they arrive at www.playasummerlake.org/current-residents.html.Seating on the free bus is limited. Call the Main Library in Lakeview at 541-947-6019 to reserve your seat today. The bus will begin loading at the Main Library in Lakeview 12:45 pm for a 1:00 pm departure. Anticipated return to Lakeview is around 5:00 pm.Funding for the bus is provided by the Libraries of Eastern Oregon (LEO) through an ArtPlace America grant. LEO is a nonprofit organization that serves libraries in its 15-county service area with programs, online services, and advocacy.For more information about riding the bus, please contact Library Director Amy Hutchinson at 541-947-6019 or amyh@lakecountylibrary.org. For more information about Playa Presents, please contact Playa staff at 541-943-3983 or info@playasummerlake.org. ​

(Lakeview, Ore)— The Lake County Library Endowment Fund will present Dennis Jenkins, a Senior Research Archaeologist for the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon, as speaker for the 2016 Library Endowment Dinner. The dinner will be held on Saturday, October 15, 2016, with a no-host reception fundraiser at the new Main Library from 5 to 6 pm followed by dinner at 6:30 at the Elks Lodge. Jenkins talk is on archaeology and science at the Paisley Caves.

Dr. Luther Cressman’s 1938-1940 excavations at the Paisley Caves in Oregon discovered exciting evidence suggesting that people may have lived there as early as the Late Pleistocene, some 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. However, it was not until recent developments in ancient DNA testing that he was proven correct. Dating of camel and horse bones, artifacts, twigs, and dried human feces containing Native American DNA between 12,900 and 14,500 years ago indicates that people lived in the caves and apparently hunted camels, horses, and other animals at the end of the Pleistocene.

Dr. Jenkins will explain the scientific processes and results of archaeological and paleogenetic investigations at the Paisley Caves, bringing the audience the most up-to-date information about the evidence for the pre-Clovis (13,000 years ago) association of humans and Pleistocene animals in Oregon’s high desert country more than 14,000 years ago.

​A native Oregonian, Jenkins was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada where he earned his BA (1977) and MA (1981) in anthropology at UNLV. He has taught and directed the UO’s annual Northern

Great Basin archaeological field school in central Oregon since 1989. His research focuses on the first colonization of the Americas, obsidian sourcing and hydration, prehistoric shell bead trade, and settlement-subsistence patterns of the Northern Great Basin. He is an active researcher with publications in such prestigious journals as Science and Nature. He has made 11 appearances in television documentaries and has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous books, articles, and reports.

This year’s fundraising items include a special raffle item for a one-week stay in Hawaii. Stay is for a 1-bedroom ocean-side condo that sleeps up to 4 donated by Margot Dodds. Winner must provide their own airfare. Only 150 tickets for this item will be sold at a cost of $20 each. Regular raffle items include artwork, wine basket, a collection of books written by local authors, and more. Regular raffle tickets are $1 each, six tickets for $5, or arms’ length for $20. All raffle tickets sales begin on Wednesday, October 5, 2016 in the Main Library. You need not be present at the dinner to win raffle items.

Tickets to the dinner are $25 and may be purchased or reserved at the Lakeview library. No ticket or reservation is required for the no-host reception at the Main Library, which is open to all. Questions about the event may be directed to Amy Hutchinson, Lake County Library Director, at 541-947-6019.